01/29/2009
[Previously by Brenda Walker, The MexiChurian Candidate?, September 15, 2004]
For a man who sought to define himself as the national security President and protector of America, George W. Bush often put foreign interests — mainly those of Mexico — over the well being of the United States. Bush was certainly the best friend Mexico ever had in the White House.
Perhaps Bush’s conflicting loyalties show the genius of the human mind for convenient compartmentalization. Certainly the recent trend in the Presidency has been to think globally rather than nationally. A new extreme occurred when then-Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama declared himself to be a Citizen of the World in Berlin.
More and more, White House occupants see themselves as High Poobah of the Planet, rather than the American people’s elected President. They certainly want to be seen as first among equals by their peer group of other national leaders.
I wrote about the first Bush term in my 2004 VDARE.com article, The Mexichurian Candidate?, partially to investigate whether I could find a single case of his choosing the interests of Americans over Mexicans. I couldn’t identify a single one — not the water debt, nor an objection to dangerous NAFTA trucking and no concern for secure identification.
Little has changed since then.
In 2006, GWB had his usual celebration of Cinco de Mayo in the White House for his Mexican friends, and remarked, "Cinco de Mayo is a day of special pride for citizens of Mexico, but it is, as well, for Americans." What a bizarre mental gyration, even for a politician.
In the same year, a 2004 campaign video [WATCH] came to be widely viewed on YouTube where Bush expressed sentiments that many restrictionists would consider reconquista — that to Mexicans, the border crossed them.
There was a noticeable uptick in workplace enforcement during the Bush administration’s final year. But Department of Homeland Security honcho Michael Chertoff himself explained why he pursued a crackdown strategy: "Americans will soon say, 'OK, it’s now time to allow more legal immigrants in … Ultimately, we're going to have to go back to Congress and ask for comprehensive immigration reform." [Chertoff to renew push on workers, By Nicole Gaouette, LA Times, Oct 24, 2008]
Other good news was polluted as well.
Bush’s sentence commutation of imprisoned Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean on his last full day in office (Jan 19) was long advocated by many citizens. But it came with more than one bitter pill. Bush could have freed the men immediately, but instead left them in prison until March 20.
Worse, Bush allowed Mexico City to play the US Justice Department like its private mariachi band regarding the case.
A top Mexican official recently admitted meddling. Carlos Rico, the assistant foreign minister for North American affairs, stated, "The political maneuvering [of Americans] was stronger than the efforts of the Mexican government," [Bush commutes sentences of Border Patrol agents, By Todd J. Gillman And Laura Isensee, Dallas Morning News, Jan 20, 2009].
A Jan 19 radio interview on the John and Ken radio show with Congressmen Ed Royce and Ted Poe noted the disinformation that came from the executive branch to steer Congress the wrong way when it first began to investigate the case for possible malfeasance. Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner lied to concerned members of Congress, telling them that Compean and Ramos were bad cops who wanted to kill a Mexican on the day of the shooting.
Rep John Culberson (R-TX) later nailed Skinner during a hearing on another matter, forcing the IG to admit his wrongdoing under oath. A press release from the Congressman’s office dated Feb 7, 2007, stated:
"Richard Skinner admitted yesterday under oath that his top deputies gave Members of Congress false information painting Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean as rogue cops who were not in fear for their lives and who were 'out to shoot Mexicans'.
"In my opinion, this false information was given to Members of Congress to throw us off the scent and cover-up what appears to be an unjust criminal prosecution of two U.S. law enforcement officers whose job was protecting our country’s borders from criminalsand terrorists.
Rather than being rogue cops, Ramos and Compean insisted on a trial instead of a plea deal because they wanted to be completely exonerated.
That strategy might have worked out if the Justice Department hadn’t worked so hard to railroad them. After the 2005 shooting, the Justice Department sent agents to Mexico to find the butt-shot drug smuggler Aldrete-Davila to recruit him to testify, and agreed after he was offered a border-crossing card — which he used to smuggling in more dope!
Justice was further thwarted when the jury was not permitted to hear that Davila was a major drug smuggler — he swore that he brought a single load across to help out his poor sick mother.
The defense was not allowed to present evidence that the border near the shooting was a dangerous area, where a lot of armed smugglers passed through. The whole trial was a travesty, a "grotesque injustice" in the words of Rep Culberson.
It’s hard not to conclude that Bush went along with the ruination of the lives and careers of two decent border officers to please his friends in Mexico City and at the same time show the border remained open for illegal business. Whether Bush worked against American security out of his dumb Mexophilia or for nefarious reasons is more vexing.
There’s also clear evidence of Mexican meddling in the case of Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez of Edwards County Texas who was similarly railroaded into jail for doing his job.
While on duty, Hernandez investigated a truck filled with illegal alien smugglers which had run a red light, and whose passengers then attempted to run him down.
Hernandez then shot out the tires as the drug smugglers tried to escape and one of the passengers was slightly injured by flying debris. Mexico’s consular office insisted that the Justice Department prosecute Deputy Hernandez for performing law enforcement against Mexicans. Bush complied.
Photos of Gilmer’s return to his home of Rocksprings, Texas, after his release from 10 months in jail show the town’s high regard for the man: FreeGilmer.com.
Mexican meddling in American sovereignty and internal affairs is a common event.
If the Democrats had wanted, they could have easily accused of Bush having a Mexican Watergate over all the judicial misbehavior in the prosecutions against border officers. But the Dems probably figured that Bush was destroying his legacy well enough on his own. A Congressional inquiry is unlikely so we will never learn how dirty it can be at the top.
Another morally repugnant legal case was Bush’s support for Mexico and the International Court against justice for the American families of two teenaged girls raped and murdered in 1993.
Friends Jennifer Erdman and Elizabeth Pena were brutally tortured and killed as part of a gang initiation. Instead of properly acceding, as a member of the Executive branch, to the Texas court’s conviction and sentence of death for murderer Jose Medellin, Bush challenged the separation of powers and national sovereignty by ordering a review of the case.
Mexico had decided at a late date that Medellin’s right to consult with the local Mexican consulate had been neglected, and that should allow him yet another reprieve.
As the Governor of Texas, Bush had overseen 152 executions. But when Mexico City threw a hissy fit over one of its citizens, Bush took the side of the killer against the long-suffering families of the girls.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court eventually set justice back on course, and Medellin was executed last August 5. Getting justice in America shouldn’t be so hard.
In the larger political arena, Presidente Bush exposed his sovereignty dissolution agenda in his stealthy efforts to arrange the North American Union, an additional scheme to benefit Mexico and harm Americans. The plan for more "integrated" economies would include lots of US taxpayer money invested in Mexican infrastructure (despite the fact that Mexico is a wealthy country, consistently ranking around #14 in world GDP).
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush sent our troops into Afghanistan to take out dangerous jihadist training camps. However, FBI reports in 2005 of at least one narco training camp in Mexico brought no attention whatsoever from the White House.
Eight years of Bush permissiveness toward Mexico has left it a national security disaster for America that President Barack Obama will have to face.
As we bid a fond, none-too-soon farewell to Bush, it should be noted that his preference for non-American do-gooder activities also extended to Africa.
Bush happily signed onto the anti-AIDS campaign espoused by entertainers like Bono. If the United States were flush with cash rather than trillions of dollars in debt, and if all citizens had reasonable access to healthcare, a tax expenditure of $48 billion for African AIDS treatment might be almost tolerable.
As perhaps the most grandiose expression of his compassionate conservatism, the President acted like Mr. Generous and the taxpayers were stuck with the hefty tab: U.S. triples AIDS, malaria, TB funds for Africa [Agence France-Press, July 30, 2008].
"President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed legislation tripling funds to fight the killer diseases of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the world’s poorest countries, mainly in Africa.
"Congress approved a package earlier this month which lifted funding for the five-year program from 15 billion dollars, set in 2003, to the 48 billion dollars signed into law by Bush.
"The U.S. president had called during a trip to Africa in February for Congress to double funding for the program to 30 billion dollars, but the final sum was much larger."
Millions of Americans have no healthcare, but the Bush and Congress have given $48 billion in medical aid to Africa.
What’s wrong with this picture? Everything.
Bush should have spent the citizens' money on the American people when there is so much need at home for healthcare.
If the President wanted to raise funds from the private sector for AIDS treatment in Africa to impress Bono with his generosity, fine.
But it was wrong for Bush to direct taxpayer funds on do-gooder foreign projects to spiff up his image when he has indebted the country for trillions of dollars with nothing to show for it.
And if misplaced generosity with money borrowed from an unfriendly communist country isn’t bad enough, some of the expensive AIDS drugs are being stolen from sick people: Getting high on HIV drugs in S Africa [BBC Dec 8 2008].
"Anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV/Aids are being bought and smoked by teenagers in South Africa to get high.
"Reports suggest that the drugs are being sold by patients and even healthcare staff for money.
"Schoolchildren have been spotted smoking the drugs, which are ground into powder and sometimes mixed with painkillers or marijuana."
Anyway, as James Madison remarked in 1794, "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
Some conservatives are singing Bush’s praises because there have been no more terror attacks after 9/11, while most Americans believed that there would be.
True enough, but he has managed to shred the conservative movement with his taxpayer-funded "compassion" and stunning over-spending ($5 trillion worth of additional debt). Not to mention his acquiescence to Mexican and foreign interests, which has been excessive and relentless.
At least Obama had the honesty to declare himself a one-worlder, as one expects of a far left politician. Bush has been slyer, wrapping himself in the flag when it suited him but he has undermined the sovereignty and Constitution he swore to defend.
Good-bye and good riddance.
Brenda Walker (email her) lives in Northern California and publishes two websites, LimitsToGrowth.org and ImmigrationsHumanCost.org. She still thinks Bush behaves as if someone in Sombrero-land has blackmail-quality photos, perhaps from the mysterious party-dude years.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.